Bangkok, 18 March 2008 –Samitivej, one of Thailand and SEA’s leading private hospital groups, help improve people’s life through the application of Minimal Invasive Surgery (MIS) technique in many of its surgeries. MIS is a new technique which uses the precise technology to operate on patients resulting in smaller incision, minimal pain and shorter length of recovery and reduces risk of complications.

“Following on from our No Price Increase policy at the beginning of the year, we want to further enhance our vision of being the ‘Lifetime Companion’ for our customers” said Mr. Raymond Chong, MD and CEO of Samitivej Public Company Limited.”MIS will allow our patients to get back to normal life faster, in some cases within 24 hours”. A smaller surgical incision means smaller wound and shorter length of stay in hospital. This will also mean lower costs for the patients. A smaller incision without a large scar after the procedure is also good for cosmetic reasons.

This ‘smaller incision, minimal pain’ operation can mitigate many of the undesirable aspects typically associated with conventional surgery. Precise technology with minimal surgery reduces side effects such as blood loss, infections and other complications. These assurance will give patients added emotional support and contribute towards better holistic care.

Samitivej currently uses this technology widely throughout the hospitals including treatment of heart, pulmonary,
respiratory, gynecology, bone, joint, kidney, and digestive as well in general and plastics surgeries. The hospital is also one of few hospitals to have a Navigation system use for orthopedic surgeries. The system creates a model of the organ inside the body as a digital image. This digital image is used as a ‘map’ to facilitate surgeries giving greater accuracy and reducing risk surrounding health organs.

‘Samitivej’s journey of care over 28 years has been a model of high quality care, provided be a team of committed
and experience medical team. Today as we advance with technology we want to be known as “High Touch”
and “High Tech” hospital” added Mr. Chong.

A new campaign is launched to educate the public that a surgery is nothing to be afraid of.MIS will give them greater confidence and peace of mind as it ensures “smaller incision, minimal pain” operation. A new TV commercial, print and billboard advertisement will be launched from 18 March onwards.

In the new advertising campaign, fingers are used as a symbol to show the degree of pain, recovery period and size of the wound. The campaign attempts to compare traditional operation techniques and MIS. For the conventional operation techniques, the thumb and index finger will move apart wider to reflect the bigger wound, more pain and longer recovery period. When use MIS, the fingers move closer together to show pain, wound and recovery period is smaller and shorter, and to get patients back to the beauty of life.

About Samitivej
Samitivej is one of Thailand and SEA’s leading private hospital group accredited with various Thai authorities and JCI from the USA. Established in 1979 at Soi Sukhumvit 49, today the group has added three more hospitals including SNH, SNCH and SSH.